This is a campaign was run a few months ago in Australia, but I have only recently picked up on it (hat tip Aden Hepburn). Levi’s, which used to be known for being rebellious and uber cool, had found that Australia’s youth market had fallen out of love with its brand.
With this key insight in mind they looked for ways to make their brand relevant again. And so ISpyLevi’s was born.
Location Based Game
The concept is brilliant in its simplicity – they merged off- and online together in a ‘catch me if you can’ game where Twitter and mobile were used to transmit clues about the target’s location. Once the target had been identified, the utterance of the magic words “are those Levi’s?” resulted in the jeans being dropped to the floor and handed over to the pursuitor. To much hilarity of any bystanders who had no idea of what was going on!
Hundreds of pairs of Levi’s were sent out to the street and handed over to followers of the campaign’s Twitter account. The Twitter account has over 2,000 followers and the campaign is estimated to have reached over 300,000 people.
Engaging and Talkworthy
This is a great example of how social media and a real life experience can be merged into one successful campaign. The campaign is memorable, engaging and most importantly, it will get people talking about the brand. The video below gives some more details about the campaign.
So it’s all good?
Whilst I believe this has been a great campaign, there are certain elements which could have been improved upon.
The campaign has attracted a lot of attention and managed to amass over 2,000 followers on Twitter. Considering the fact the game was played based around a given location that’s a pretty good number. However, the account has not been updated for over 6 weeks now. That’s 2,000+ potential brand ambasadors that are being ignored. That’s 2,000 people who have opted in to hear from your brand.
After having connected with these people for months all of a sudden Levi’s is giving them the silent treatment. It’s like breaking up with your girlfriend, without actually telling her!This shows the problem with the lack of a social media strategy and campaign based thinking. The campaign has been a success, but with an appropriate strategy in place Levi’s could have build on this campaign.
A central spot for all social activity, such as a Facebook Fanpage or brand hub, could have provided Levi’s with the platform to draw these people in further and move them from being brand enthousiasts to brand ambassadors. They could have asked their fans to follow the main Levi’s Twitter account to stay in the loop for example – oh, what’s that? Right, no Levi’s Twitter account.
By creating a platform for long term engagement it becomes a lot easier to launch a successful campaign. Instead of having to start from scratch each time, you will have a database of brand ambassadors and people you know who are brand fans who can help you improve the campaign, as well as spread the word.
Campaign based activity in social media is fine, but without the solid foundation of a strategy many opportunities are lost to connect with people over a longer period of time.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this campaign!
